The Illinois State Military Museum will give people a firsthand look next weekend at what National Guard troops encountered when they arrived at the trenches of World War I.

“The weather was a major issue in 1918. They had more rain that year than had previously been recorded in Europe,” said Chris Cliburn, a World War I reenactor who lives in Springfield. “The trench conditions were muddy and messy. They would bore little dugout holes in the sides of the trench walls. That would be their home so they could get out of the weather a little bit.”

Cliburn is one of the reenactors who will be at the Illinois State Military Museum at 1301 N. MacArthur Blvd. March 5 and 6 for the Great War Encampment. The educational event will include a simulated trench with WWI military equipment, lectures, and also battle reenactments.

The goal is to educate the public on World War I and the Illinois National Guard’s contribution to the Allied victory.

Hellar Armbruster, a volunteer at the museum, said the program could become an annual event. The hundredth anniversary of the start of the war will occur in 2014, and the centennial of America’s involvement will be marked in 2017.

“We are going to start an annual event at the museum to tell the story of not only Illinois, but the story of the Great War and all the countries and nations that were involved in it,” Armbruster said.

In addition to the displays and lectures, the public can watch simulated attacks. A skirmish is scheduled for 1 p.m. March 5, and there will be a simulated gas attack, using smoke, later at 4 p.m.

Cliburn said the Guard’s 33rd Division arrived in Europe in May of 1918. In addition to Germans, the Guardsmen had to contend with pneumonia, lice and other communicable diseases.

“The general conditions of that summer and fall were awful,” Cliburn said.

During the war, Guardsmen and other U.S. soldiers received equipment and training from their English and French counterparts.

“They trained us how to fight with new technology and new weapons,” Armbruster said. “Today, it’s just the opposite. We are training other countries on how to fight with these new tactics of warfare. It shows where the role of the National Guard has gone in the last 100 years.”